Chapter 1196 — The Drunken Elder

The grey mist of Fengdu spread on every side. Ahead lay the Sea of Mist and the Mountains of Skulls, skull piled upon skull, range upon range, seated in the fog, and upon them skulls beyond counting, some still crawling to and fro.

Shen Mu took out a Fengdu gold coin, meaning to summon Daoist Lingjing and ferry across the Sea of Mist, when of a sudden he froze.

In the Jingping Calamity, Daoist Lingjing had already perished, soul scattered and spirit dispersed.

The man had been a powerhouse of the Village Chief's era, stubborn to the bone, and had once challenged the Village Chief himself, hoping to seize the title of Sword God.

Later, when the Heavens Above invaded, he and the young Patriarch Wen Yuan had joined forces to block the gods of the Heavens Above, buying time for the Village Chief and the rest, until his body died and his Way vanished, and he became a ghost in Fengdu.

King Yama had granted him the post of ferryman, to pole his boat and carry ghosts and living men alike across the waters.

Back then he had still been fretting over buying a house in Fengdu, reckoning that after another thousand years or so of work, he might afford a place of his own.

When the Jingping Calamity broke out, Daoist Lingjing was again the first to leap forward, joining the past leaders of the Heavenly Sacred Cult to save lives. Yet he had only his primordial spirit left, and in that great calamity his soul was scattered to the winds.

He left behind no relics. Even had Shen Mu wished to summon his soul and reshape it, there was nothing to work with.

In the mist ahead, the ferry came. The ferryman aboard was dressed in rags, and standing in the small boat he seemed very tall, his tattered cloak streaming in the fog.

The boat drew up to the landing. Shen Mu stepped aboard, and the ferryman poled the boat toward Fengdu.

Standing on that boat, Shen Mu could not help but recall his conversation with Daoist Lingjing when the Jingping Calamity first erupted.

He had said: "Daoist Lingjing, you and the Patriarch gave your lives for Jingping, blocking the Heavens Above, and yet not one soul in Jingping knows you are the heroes who guarded them."

At the time, Daoist Lingjing had poled his boat through range after range of Mountains of Skulls, and answered him with a laugh: "But I know I am a hero. I follow my heart, and I do what must be done."

Daoist Lingjing had also said that the next time Shen Mu came, the man on the ferry might not be him.

Shen Mu looked at the ferryman. The man was not Lingjing, but another godfiend of Fengdu.

The boat reached the shore. Shen Mu paid the fare, leaped onto land, passed the boundary stone of the Realm of the Living Dead, crossed the ridges, and walked on toward Fengdu.

In this world there are all kinds of people, all kinds of ways to live, a hundred faces of sentient beings. Some are happy, some plain, some toiling, some suffering hardship.

But whether life is fair or foul, there are always those who carry the burden for you, who press on beneath the weight, and even give their lives.

Toward such people, we should not mock their choices, but grant them the respect they are due.

The great Way of Fengdu sought to alter Shen Mu's flesh, to transform this living man into a skeleton. Yet Shen Mu's understanding of the Great Way of the Nether Capital was exceedingly profound, and his cultivation was now immeasurably deep, so the Way of Fengdu could not change a single hair of him.

He walked on. Looking around, he saw that Fengdu was now far vaster than before, scarcely inferior to the Nether Capital of the Yin Son of Heaven, boundless and without limit. Clearly, the many Heavenly Masters and Heavenly Kings of the Kaihuang era had gathered here and built Fengdu up very well indeed.

Shen Mu crossed the ridges, and the divine cities of Fengdu appeared before him one after another.

Here he had too many memories, yet now the whole layout had changed beyond recognition, giving him the feeling of entering a foreign land.

He walked into Prince Shen's City. The streets were thronged with gods and godfiends, and all who saw him froze, staring at him in a daze.

Shen Mu wore a smile, nodding to the Kaihuang divinities on either side.

They returned his smile one and all.

Before long, word that Shen Mu had come to Fengdu spread far and wide. The first to arrive was the god Chixiu, bird-headed and human-bodied, who swooped down and landed before Shen Mu, saluting him: "Should I call you Human Sovereign Shen, or Heavenly Venerable Mu?"

Shen Mu laughed: "Heavenly Venerable Mu will do."

Chixiu bowed and led the way, saying: "This way, Heavenly Venerable Mu. Has the Heavenly Venerable come this time to visit old friends?"

"Chixiu, you are an old friend of mine as well."

Shen Mu smiled: "This time I have indeed come to pay my respects to all of you."

Chixiu tilted his head: "Yet those old friends of yours would rather not see you. When Tian Shu, Heavenly King of the Nether Capital, heard you had come, he hid himself in a tavern and dared not come out. When Heavenly King Di Yiyue heard you had arrived, she turned pale with fright and hid herself in the deepest level of Fengdu. Heavenly King Dish says he means to go into seclusion to comprehend the Scripture of Immeasurable Calamities. The two Heavenly Masters Wu and Dou have shut their doors and will not come out."

He glanced at Shen Mu: "Even King Yama is not in Prince Shen's Hall, but has gone to the deepest level of Fengdu. Does the Heavenly Venerable know the reason?"

Shen Mu did not answer.

Chixiu said: "Because during the Jingping Calamity, none of us lent a hand, and we feel we have failed you. The Human Sovereign Heavenly Venerable Mu rescued Heavenly King Tian Shu, saved him from the Imperial Palace Divine Blade — he owes you a debt. The Human Sovereign Heavenly Venerable Mu revived Heavenly King Di Yiyue — she owes you a debt."

"The Heavenly Venerable Mu rooted out the Heavenly Court's forces in the Buddhist Realm — Heavenly King Dish owes you a debt. The Human Sovereign Heavenly Venerable Mu opened up the Heavenly River Divine Treasury, saving the warriors of the Dou Niu Realm from being unable to attain godhood — the Heavenly Master Wu owes you a debt. The Heavenly Venerable Mu also saved the people of Taihuang Heaven, and even the Woodcutter Sage feels you did him a kindness."

"Even King Yama owes his firm grip on Fengdu to you. It was for your sake that Heavenly Venerable You and Lord Earth did not destroy Fengdu. They all feel they have failed you."

Chixiu said: "You have done them kindnesses, and so they dare not come to see you."

Shen Mu smiled faintly: "And what of the Fisherman and the Azure Emperor? The Fisherman Heavenly Master and the Azure Emperor Heavenly King have done me kindnesses. Surely they would not dare not come to see me."

Chixiu led him onward: "The Azure Emperor sent the divine dragons of Dragon Village to aid you — in truth, to aid Taihuang Heaven. Taihuang Heaven is a remnant of Kaihuang, so that was not helping you. Yet you helped Taihuang Heaven, and so he owes you. The same goes for the Fisherman Heavenly Master. When the Fisherman Heavenly Master helped you fish the sun and the moon from the Xi Spring and the Po Spring, he was also helping the Sun Herder and Moon Herder under Kaihuang's command — not helping you, but helping Kaihuang. They all feel they have failed you, and so they too dare not see you."

He went on: "Among those under Kaihuang's command, only the First Ancestor Human Sovereign, Prince Shen Wu, dared to help you during the Jingping Calamity. But he no longer considers himself a prince or scion of the Kaihuang era."

Shen Mu said: "He is the Human Sovereign of Jingping, the founder of the Jingping era. The Hall of Human Sovereigns thrives now. He and the Human Sovereigns of past generations open the hall and teach disciples, and his contribution to Jingping is great."